Apple's pollution audit will not include Foxconn: Hon Hai

2012/04/16 22:06:08

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. said Monday its subsidiary in China has not been included in Apple Inc.'s recent agreement to a pollution audit on its Chinese supply chain.

According to a report by the London-based Financial Times, the American electronics giant has agreed to a jointly monitored audit on environmental pollution control at its supplier's plant in China.

The audit will be conducted by Apple and the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs on a maker of printed circuit boards for Apple, the report added.

The audit has nothing to do with Foxconn, the largest supplier of Apple's iPads and iPhones and China's largest exporter, Hon Hai said of its subsidiary in China.

Working conditions at Foxconn's factories have just been inspected by the Fair Labor Association in the United States, and the company is working on the improvements suggested, Hon Hai added.

However, if the non-governmental institute asked all Chinese subcontractors of Apple to be audited, Hon Hai will cooperate, the company noted.

Meanwhile, Hon Hai denied reports that its chairman Terry Gou, the fourth wealthiest person in Taiwan, bought a high-end residence in Taipei for NT$250 million (US$8.46 million), saying that was simply a rumor invented by local real estate agencies.